Posts Tagged ‘kidnapped girls Nigeria’

Newscast Media LAGOS—The UN has expressed deep concern over Boko Haram’s
threat of selling hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by the group’s fighters in Nigeria.
The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that such a move is banned under
international law and may constitute a crime against humanity.

“We are deeply concerned about the outrageous claims made in a video
believed to be by the leader of Boko Haram in Nigeria yesterday, in which
he brazenly says he will sell the abducted schoolgirls in the market and
marry them off, referring to them as ‘slaves,” said Rupert Colville,
spokesman for UN rights chief Nheavi Pillay.

Gunmen from the Boko Haram group have yet again been abducted at least eight
more teenage girls in the violence-infested northen Nigeria. The militants kidnapped
the girls in the early hours of Tuesday morning in a village in the country’s troubled
north.

“They were many, and all of them carried guns. They came in two vehicles painted in
army color. They started shooting in our village,” media outlets quoted local residents
as saying.

Nigerian secruity sources say the girls were taken on trucks, along with livestock and
food. Boko Haram has already kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls and has threatened to
sell them into slavery. The United nations and human rights groups have expressed
deep concern over the issue.

The UN human rights office says such a move is banned under international law and
may constitute a crime against humanity. The office has further urged Boko Haram to
immediately return the girls to their families unharmed.

The gunmen initially abducted 276 girls three weeks ago from their boarding school in
Chibok, northern Nigeria. At least 53 of the girls managed to escape.

Meanwhile, hundreds of women have held rallies in several cities this week to vent
their anger at security forces for their failure to rescue the girls. The protesters have
vowed to continue their campaign until the abducted students are freed.

Several regions of Nigeria have been also hit by deadly violence in recent months.
In May 2013, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared states of emergency in
northeastern states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa.

According to the UK-based rights group, Amnesty International, at least 1,500 people
have been killed so far this year across Nigeria.